Women experiencing domestic abuse try to ‘hold everything together’ over Christmas

Women experiencing domestic abuse try to “hold everything together” and cope over the Christmas period instead of reaching out for help, according to the chief executive of Women’s Aid.

Sarah Benson said the domestic violence support service notices a “lull” on its helpline on the core days of Christmas – from Christmas Eve until St Stephen’s Day – and then calls pick up again shortly after.

“What we find is we actually usually get kind of a lull on the helpline. Because women are simply coping through those times, they’re trying to hold everything together.

“It’s like taking a big a big deep breath and trying to hold it and hold everything together.

“And then what we will always see is in January, usually once the kids go back to school, the phones start really ringing and you have women kind of breathing out and sharing what they’ve had to do, what they have been through and sometimes at that point saying: ‘Okay, now is maybe the time that I’d like to discuss what my options are…